Perhaps you've heard the term "urban mining" and wondered what it actually means? Find out what the Eiffel Tower and your smartphone have to do with it in this blog post!
The term "urban mining" originally comes from the urban construction industry and refers to the extraction of raw materials from the city. This is because buildings in large cities contain a large number of raw materials, known as secondary raw materials. These can still be used later, even after the building is demolished. Therefore, the fundamental aim of urban mining is to recycle these raw materials.
Just as industry can produce new packaging from recycled paper, so too can construction waste and general technical scrap be recycled. And that includes all the materials it contains.
For example, if a house is demolished, many metals such as copper or iron can be recovered from the old water pipes and electrical cables by melting them down.
How do we use urban mining as jewelry cables?
For us, acting sustainably means using what's already there – instead of extracting new, limited resources. This is precisely the idea behind the term Urban Mining – originally from urban mining, now also at Dear Darling Berlin.
For us as a jewelry brand, this means the recovery of gold from old electronic devices, scrap gold, and other sources. This gold is then used, for example, to create our solid gold jewelry.
Even though one might assume that we Germans are already quite good at recycling electrical appliances, the figures tell a different story: Currently, only about 15% of electronic waste is recycled!
The reason for this is that older methods for recovering gold are expensive and usually consume a lot of CO2. However, there are modern methods that can significantly reduce CO2 emissions. For example, old computer parts don't need to be completely melted down; instead, only the gold can be extracted using microbes. This saves time and money.
In short: the Earth's natural resource reserves are being continuously depleted through ongoing extraction and consumption. At the same time, however, the amount of secondary raw materials is growing, such as gold and silver from existing jewelry or precious metal-containing materials – even cell phones, laptops, and tablets contain valuable materials. We utilize these secondary raw materials and create our timeless jewelry from reclaimed, recycled silver and gold.
And the best part is: the quality of sustainable silver and gold is no different from conventional precious metals. However, refining existing materials is much more environmentally friendly. Furthermore, this eliminates the need for anyone to work in dangerous mines under hazardous conditions that are harmful to both people and the environment.
The dark side of gold mining
But what exactly is the reason why urban mining is so important to us as a jewelry brand? Quite simply: extracting gold is extremely labor-intensive and still fraught with many injustices for the workers in the mines. Child labor and working under harsh conditions are still commonplace. Many families simply have no alternative and have to endure this backbreaking work every day.
As a jewelry brand, we therefore want to use our voice and draw our customers' attention to the injustices that still exist.
Demand for gold continues to rise. Currently, around 200,000 tons of gold are in circulation, and more than two-thirds of it was mined after 1950. Gold mining is also still increasing, with between 3,000 and 3,500 tons still being extracted annually. For comparison, the Eiffel Tower in Paris weighs approximately 1,000 tons – that's equivalent to three and a half golden Eiffel Towers per year.
Another downside of gold mining is the way nature is destroyed in the process. Gold is extracted through mining, often using explosives. Additionally, forests are cleared and rivers dammed to create new sources of gold.
Here are a few more facts that show how dirty gold mining can be:
- 70% of the gold currently processed comes from conventional sources such as traditional gold mines.
- Non-industrial gold mining is among the world's 10 biggest environmental problems.
- 30 million people worldwide work in gold mines every day.
- Of these, approximately 1 million are children.
- The rainforest is also being burned to clear more land for gold mining.
General advantages of urban mining
Urban mining hasn't yet received the public attention it deserves – despite offering numerous advantages that perfectly address the current challenges of our generation. Here are the key benefits:
- Lower energy costs: To extract 1g of gold through urban mining, modern technologies require much less energy than conventional mining in a gold mine.
- No toxic chemicals such as cyanide or mercury are used, as is still standard practice in gold mines today.
- No one (especially no children) should have to work in mines under terrible working conditions anymore.
- No new raw materials need to be extracted, as sufficient resources are already in circulation.
- There are no delivery problems - also a very current issue!
- For companies, urban mining is more cost-effective because raw material prices are currently rising faster than one can say "expensive".
- Something new and beautiful can be created from something old and broken.
- Urban mining drastically reduces environmental impact. For example, recycling industrial waste alone has saved over 50 million tons of carbon dioxide in the last 25 years.
- By utilizing existing resources, companies become independent of rising commodity prices. A topic that is more relevant than ever.
Benefits for the entire jewelry industry
Gold is one of the world's most valuable and sought-after materials. But it is also a limited resource. Conventional gold mining doesn't paint a particularly glamorous picture of this beautiful treasure of the earth, as it is characterized by poor working conditions, child labor, and environmental damage caused by toxic substances used in the extraction process.
For us, the advantages of recycled gold are therefore clear:
1) Gold can be recovered an infinite number of times with almost no loss.
2) There is already enough mined gold in circulation.
3) We love the idea of giving something old a new shine.
Get active!
Here's some good news: You can do something for a better, more sustainable circular economy and the protection of valuable raw materials, thereby reducing your own carbon footprint.
Donate your smartphone
Old smartphones, for example, can be used to extract a lot of gold! You might even have an old cell phone lying around at home that could be a real treasure trove. On average, everyone buys a new cell phone every 11 months. As a result, nearly 1.4 billion cell phones are produced each year, which, after a very short lifespan, are either stored away in a cupboard or drawer, or improperly disposed of in household waste.
Here you'll find a list of mobile phone collection points where you can drop off your old smartphones. https://worldgoldday.com/handysammelstellen/
Bring your scrap gold by
But that's not all: If you still own old gold jewelry that you no longer wear and that's just gathering dust in your closet, you can also recycle it. Simply drop it off at one of the following scrap gold collection points:
https://worldgoldday.com/altgold-sammelstellen/
When buying gold, pay attention to its origin.
In our jewelry production, we place great emphasis on transparency and sustainability. We work with local partners in Germany, Italy, and Spain who use recycled gold and sterling silver for our pieces, sourced directly from refineries on site.
A precious metal refinery is essentially a recycling plant specializing in the recovery of metals. Various scrap materials, such as industrial or electronic waste, old jewelry, coins, cutlery, and other remnants containing precious metals, are separated into their individual components, a process known as "refining." These raw materials are then reintroduced into the production cycle and used in jewelry manufacturing.
Sources (as of August 17, 2022)
https://worldgoldday.com/did-you-know/